[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6946-6947]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               KRESSE INDUCTED INTO ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, for the past 22 years, men's 
basketball at the College of Charleston has been charmed by the unique 
powers of head coach John Kresse. Last week, the native New Yorker 
earned a berth in Palmetto sports history when he was inducted into the 
South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Kresse's remarkable 
statistics speak for themselves. He has compiled a 539-134 record with 
the Cougars for an .801 winning percentage that trails only Jerry 
Tarkanian and Roy Williams among active coaches. With a December 1999 
victory over Tennessee Tech, he also became the second fastest coach in 
NCAA history to record 500 wins. That same year, the College of 
Charleston became the only team in Southern Conference history to post 
a 19-0 season. Under his leadership, the Cougars have earned four NCAA 
and two NIT tournament bids and have won 22 or more games in 17 of the 
last 21 seasons.
  Coach Kresse arrived in Charleston in 1979 after successful stints as 
assistant

[[Page 6947]]

coach under Lou Carnesecca at his alma mater, St. John's, and the New 
York Nets of the American Basketball Association. Over the next two 
decades, he groomed Charleston's modest basketball program to become a 
nationally-recognized competitor and source of tremendous state pride. 
``I'm not a showy guy,'' Kresse told The Post and Courier newspaper 
about his transformation from city slicker to Southern sports hero. 
``I'm a basic meat and potatoes guy who fell in love with this city, 
this State and the hospitality.'' The home arena now bears Coach 
Kresse's name, but fans bear his testimony every time they cheer a 
Cougar squad to victory. I can't think of anyone who deserves to be a 
Hall of Famer more than John Kresse.




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